


Richie Tozier Breaks the Internet (Multiple Times)

by Grey_eyed_Birdie



Category: IT (Movies - Muschietti), IT - Stephen King
Genre: Bisexual Richie Tozier, Eddie Kaspbrak Lives, Eddie Kaspbrak Loves Richie Tozier, Famous Richie Tozier, Fix-It, M/M, Mention of attempted suicide, Minor Ben Hanscom/Beverly Marsh, Original Character(s), POV Original Character, Richie Tozier Loves Eddie Kaspbrak, Sorry Georgie, Stanley Uris Lives
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-10
Updated: 2020-09-10
Packaged: 2021-03-06 22:08:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,264
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26386159
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Grey_eyed_Birdie/pseuds/Grey_eyed_Birdie
Summary: The events of IT Chapter Two and later as told by a group of Richie's confused theorizing fans.
Relationships: Eddie Kaspbrak/Richie Tozier
Comments: 6
Kudos: 119





	Richie Tozier Breaks the Internet (Multiple Times)

**Author's Note:**

> Honestly I just love thinking about how outside characters or non-POV characters would react to things and it's hilarious for me to think about the world receiving minimal to no information and explanation during IT Chpt 2. So here's my take on that. Throughout writing and naming this fic (I should include a thank you to a friend here, I suck at naming things) my general mood was just: "when you assume you make an ass out of u and me" and I think that's pretty much all you need to know :) I hope you like it!

When Julie got home from her afternoon classes on Friday night she was tired but excited. Classes had barely begun and she already felt like she wanted them to end but now she had two full days of nothing and that was bliss. It was finally the weekend and she could relax.

“Hey, babe,” Sofia said as Julie dropped her bag near the door and took her shoes off. She was sitting on the couch with a textbook open on her lap, her long blonde hair tied up in a messy-looking bun. Luke was on the floor, his back leaning on the couch, in front of her. From where Julie stood she could only see the back of his wavy brown hair. They had papers and books all over the floor and couch around them.

Julie shared her small apartment with her friend Luke and her twin brother, Jake. The three of them had been best friends for so long, Julie saw Luke as her brother too. They had chosen to move to New York together for college so that they wouldn’t be separated and last year had managed to rent a tiny apartment where the three of them lived. They supported each other through everything and when Luke’s parents told him he shouldn’t bother coming home when he came out to them, Jake and Julie held him for hours. They told him it was all going to be okay, which was proven to be correct when the twins’ parents accepted Luke the same way they had accepted Julie. He would always have a home with them. It was through Luke that Julie met her girlfriend four months earlier, when she came over to study.

“Hey, Jules,” Luke greeted without looking up from his notes.

Julie lay down on the couch with her head on Sofia’s lap, who immediately began combing through her short, choppy black hair with her fingers. “Long day?” she asked, still half paying attention to what she was reading.

Julie only hummed in response, closing her eyes. She was almost falling asleep when her brother arrived, slamming the door open loudly as usual, Luke’s boyfriend Noah right behind him.

“You guys won’t believe what happened at the Trashmouth show yesterday!” he exclaimed, kicking off his shoes and laying down unceremoniously over some of Luke’s notes.

“Get off that!” Luke hit him until he rolled over. “How do you still like that guy? He is really not that funny.”

“And kind of offensive,” Julie said, not even opening her eyes.

“Kind of?” Noah laughed as he sat next to his boyfriend, kissing him hello. He was the newest addition to their little group but Julie felt like she’d known him for ages. He had the same stupid sense of humour as her brother, the same love for video games as Sofia and, most importantly, he made Luke happy. “The guy has 13 year old potty humour.”

“Hell yeah he does!” Jake was pulling his laptop out of his bag. “But that’s not the point, look at this.”

Sofia and Luke shared a look, they were due for a break anyways. Sofia kissed Julie’s forehead as the other girl kept trying to ignore her twin, her long blonde hair falling forward and tickling the other’s cheeks. Julie chuckled softly and sat up sighing, there was no denying her brother when he got like this. Especially where Richie Tozier was concerned. 

Her brother had been part of his loyal following for years. Admittedly in the beginning Julie didn’t mind the comedian but she got progressively more annoyed at him through the years as he got less and less funny in her view. Jake, however, refused to admit that his favourite comedian had become a bit too much of a problematic fave.

“Okay,” the girl said, “what kind of stupid, politically incorrect thing has he done now?”

“Shut up,” Jake hissed at her as he pressed play on a youtube video.

The video was a phone recording of Richie Tozier walking onto the stage, probably filmed by someone in one of the front rows given the proximity. The applause of the crowd slowly died down as Tozier greeted his audience.

_“So my girlfriend caught me, uh, masturbating to her friends facebook page… and, uh, so now I’m in masturbator’s anonymous.”_

The comedian began his sketch and Julie rolled her eyes. He had some funny jokes, sure, but she couldn’t get past the stupid almost 40 year old frat boy vibe that Trashmouth had. He felt to her like another unauthentic straight white man that just took it for granted that he could say or do anything, even if it was extremely sexist or borderline homophobic, and people would still think he was funny. Around her, Jake, Noah and Sofia chuckled slightly at the joke. Luke turned to give Julie a look of “why me?” that she gratefully returned.

In the shaky phone video, the comedian continued as his audience laughed:

_“And I stand up at the first meeting and I say: my name is Richie Trashmouth…”_

Suddenly he stops and stares into nothing, slowly lowering the hand he had raised. The man looked completely disconnected from where he was, seemingly not hearing or seeing the crowd in front of him. 

The person holding the phone could be heard chuckling awkwardly waiting for the comedian to continue.

Jake motioned emphatically at the screen in a gesture that said _Look at this!_ Julie wondered how many times her twin had already watched this video.

_“Trashmouth… uh… forgot the joke…”_

Tozier spoke slowly into the microphone, frowning slightly.

“Oh, wow,” Sofia gaped amused at the video.

_“You suck!”_ someone in the crowd yelled at the comedian.

The group watched as he smiled slightly looking down at his feet. He looked awkward and unsure of himself, a look Julie had never seen on him, and she had seen a lot given that her brother loved the comedian and made her and Luke watch every one of his specials. 

_“I, uh…”_

The man shook his head slightly and took a step back from the microphone stand. He looked confused and apprehensive as he seemed to be trying to remember the joke or even the next one. The crowd in the video began heckling more and more and usually the Trashmouth would give as good as he took but the more people yelled things and the more he lost of the crowd, the more unsettled he seemed to get.

He shook his head again as he tried saying something to get control back of his set.

_“I’m sorry, I uh…”_

The crowd kept going and Tozier began backing up even more. One second he was looking at the audience panic growing on his face and the next he doubled over, puking on the stage.

At this point, two men rushed onto the stage to remove the comedian, hands on his waist and rubbing his back. A third person ran onto the stage to apologise to the audience as the person filming turned to whoever they were with and said _“Dude, what the fuck?”_

“What the fuck _indeed_!” Jake said as he paused the video and looked at them expectantly.

“What the hell was that?” Sofia asked, taking the computer from Jake and watching the video again.

“I don’t know!” Jake answered, grabbing his phone from his pocket and opening Instagram. “Look at the bullshit statement they posted on his account today. And before you say anything, I know it wasn’t him who wrote it, his manager and publicist run the public account and he doesn’t have a private one.”

He showed them the Instagram post which was a picture of the comedy show poster from the previous night, with the caption:

_“We would like to apologise for last night’s events. Of course, what happened was not planned and it was a terrible situation for everyone to have been in. All tickets will be refunded to everyone who wishes to get one and hopefully soon we will have another show where all can attend. Richie is not feeling very well since yesterday, but would like to express his deepest apologies for what happened. - With Love, the Trashmouth Team.”_

“It’s bullshit!” Jake repeated as the phone got passed from person to person around the room.

“Hey, hey I found something!” Sofia called from where she sat, already scouring the internet for possible news. “It’s a TMZ article, apparently someone from the theatre came to them with more information.”

“Shit, like a whistleblower or something?” Noah asked.

“I don’t know. Here, read it out loud.” She passed the computer to Noah who scrolled down the article before beginning to read.

**What really happened to Richie Trashmouth?**

_As many of you probably know, last night at the Trashmouth show, there were some unexpected turn of events. The comedian, Richie Tozier, known to his fans as “Trashmouth”, not only forgot his first joke of the night but then proceeded to throw up all over the stage and be quickly escorted out by crew members. This morning, the comedian’s team posted to his instagram the following message in regards to what happened:_

_“We would like to apologise for last night’s events. Of course, what happened was not planned and it was a terrible situation for everyone to have been in. All tickets will be refunded to everyone who wishes to get one and hopefully soon we will have another show where everyone can attend. Richie is not feeling very well since yesterday, but would like to express his deepest apologies for what happened. - With Love, the Trashmouth Team.”_

_Fans of Tozier have been speculating wildly as to why the comedian himself has not been seen or heard from since the show. Some believe he had a breakdown while others cite Tozier’s previous history of drugs and alcohol abuse as an argument for a possible drug problem. Whichever theory you might think is true, it is clear that not many people believe “the Trashmouth Team” that the man is only sick._

_TMZ, however, might have the real answer. This morning we were contacted by a stage crew member who works at the theatre and gave us some insider information. “He was fine up until a few minutes before the show,” our source, who chose to remain anonymous told a TMZ reporter. “He didn’t seem to be sick. He got to the theatre early, they had some lighting tests and stuff done and then he went to his dressing room and I think he stayed there up until, like, 10 minutes or so before the show.”_

_According to this first hand account, the story that Richie Tozier had been sick yesterday before he went on stage is completely wrong. However, the TMZ source did have more to add._

_“I saw him leave the dressing room to go on stage with his manager but they stopped ‘cause his phone rang,” said the crew member. “He wasn’t on the phone that long but he got really serious. I couldn’t hear him ‘cause I wasn’t close and I wasn’t trying to eavesdrop, but I saw him hang up and run out of the emergency exit. His manager went after him and he looked really shaken when he came back. I think someone said he puked outside too.” The source also added that once back inside the theatre, the comedian asked for a glass of bourbon, which he then proceeded to ‘down’ before going on stage._

_Further reports say that after Tozier was escorted out of the stage he was taken directly to his home in Beverly Hills. However, many people report no movement in or around the property since Tozier and his manager arrived last night, apart from the manager leaving a few hours later._

_Whatever the truth may be, it is safe to say that Richie Tozier does not seem to be merely sick. Fans await eagerly for more information and hope for some comment from the comedian himself._

“Holy shit,” Jake said quietly. His shoulders slumped forward. “Do you think something serious happened? Like, actually serious?”

“Drugs are still pretty serious, dude, and that’s what we were all thinking,” Luke said reading the article over Noah’s shoulder. “Maybe he’s in a hospital somewhere getting his stomach pumped and they just don’t want the public to know.”

“Yeah but the whole phone thing, that seems off doesn’t it?” Sofia asked, also trying to get closer and read the article again.

“What? You think there’s some kind of conspiracy?” 

Julie watched as everyone kept discussing the issue. She wasn’t particularly interested in Trashmouth Tozier’s life but she had to admit she was a sucker for a good mystery. They kept going all through dinner and didn’t stop when Saturday came and there was still no news. Her brother kept repeating that it was weird that no one seemed to have even seen the man, especially with how the show had ended. Julie had a feeling that this thing would be their new favourite topic for a while.

\----

One week later and Julie had to admit, she was completely invested at this point. Every day that they didn’t get any new information Jake seemed to get more and more convinced that there was some kind of grand conspiracy surrounding the disappearance of his favourite comedian and at this point, the others were not objecting.

“It’s just weird!” Jake repeated what he’d been going on about all week. “His manager hasn’t given a public statement, they cancelled the shows he had in Reno and nobody knows if the tour is even happening or not!”

“At this point, I’d say not,” Luke said from his usual place on the floor.

It was pizza and horror movie night for their little group but the movie had been paused for the past forty minutes since they’d been talking so much. Each time they discussed the subject they went from normal theories to logical ones to stupid and creative ones. It was almost turning into a game of guess what happened where maybe they’d find out who was right eventually.

“I still think he’s in some kind of witness protection,” Sofia said, hiding her smirk behind her pizza. “Maybe that’s what that phone call thing was about.”

“You guys do realize that the theatre person could have been lying, right?” Noah piped up from the floor. “They were probably just trying to get some money selling a story that isn’t even real.”

“Well, no one’s called them out for it,” Luke pointed out.

As entertaining as all their theories were, Julie had been scrolling on her phone for the past five minutes. Not tuning them out or particularly interested in people's weird thoughts on Twitter but just to have something to do with her hands since she had finished her food. That is, until she saw the trending topics which spiked her curiosity and led her to the Trashmouth’s profile.

“Holy shit,” she said as she saw the first tweet, prompting everyone to look at her. “Jake, I thought you turned on notifications for him?”

“My phone’s been dead for the past hour, why?” her brother asked, trying to see what she was looking at.

“Because he just tweeted not ten minutes ago.”

Everyone crowded around her phone as she showed them the tweet. It read:

_Plot twist, I’m not dead_

There were three pictures attached to the tweet, screenshots of an Iphone’s notepad. Julie read them out loud.

_Plot twist, I’m not dead. Bet ya didn’t expect this one! For all the nosies out there here is what actually happened:_

_Last Saturday, just before going on stage, I got a phone call from a friend of mine which really messed with my head. I have the green light to talk about this but please don’t ask me about it or pester to know who the person is, it’s not okay. Anyway, I got a call telling me that a childhood friend of mine tried to kill himself. As you might expect I wasn’t thinking or I would never have even gone on stage. But here we are, sorry if I puked on you. No, I’m not on a bender. No, I’m not having my stomach pumped. And no, I’m not a secret agent, although holy shit who came up with that? Sign me up._

_During this week many things happened including an accident involving another friend of mine who is now also in the hospital and nope I’m not telling you who that is either. It’s been a hard week and because of all that’s happened I am officially cancelling my tour. I apologize to everyone, I’ll see that you’re all refunded and all that stuff but I don’t think anyone wants a rerun of last Saturday._

_I’m okay, thanks for the concern and curiosity. It’s weird to have to tell everyone this but hey, I heard people actually thought I was dead so here’s me back from the grave. Does this count as a comeback?_

_See you guys eventually, keep it trashy, tell a mom joke for me._

_\- Richie._

“Holy Shit,” Jake mumbled after she was finished.

“Oh no, I feel so bad we were theorizing about weird shit all this time,” Sofia said. She has pulled her phone out and was scrolling through the trending topic. “Wow people are the worst. There are seriously people asking him who his friends are and speculating even more.”

“Hey guys, apparently he fired his manager!” Luke had his phone out too and was looking at an article. “Listen to this, it came out a few hours ago: ‘Trashmouth Tozier’s manager publicly announces that he has parted ways with the comedian. While he refuses to give more information about Tozier’s whereabouts or condition, he has stressed that they parted in an amicable form. We are still waiting to here from Richie Tozier about the events of his last public appearance or his decision to part ways with his management team.’”

“Amicable? That’s code for fired for sure,” Noah said.

“Do you guys think he’s gonna quit?” Jake asked. “Like, stop doing comedy at all?”

They all looked at each other not knowing how to answer. There were so many revelations in so little time that nobody knew what to say or how to interpret what had happened. Julie felt bad about how she had assumed the worst from Tozier. He might not be the best person but that didn’t mean shit didn’t happen to him too.

\----

“Hey guys, did you know Trashmouth knew Bill Denbrough?” Luke asked as he walked into their apartment two weeks later. 

“The author?” Sofia asked. She and Julie were eating dinner on the kitchen table having decided they wanted a Friday night in.

“Yeah, he’s one of my favourites. Look at this,” he sat down with them and showed them his phone. 

Instagram was opened to a post showing a group of people sitting around a table in an outside seating area. It could be the outside of a restaurant but it was hard to see. There were seven people in total. Bill Denbrough was the one holding the phone and taking the picture, sitting next to a curly haired man that had a small serious-looking smile, he was wearing long sleeves even though it was still warm weather. Next to them sat Richie Tozier smiling his signature smile, his arms around the curly haired man and a brown haired man in a wheelchair who looked very small compared to the people around him and was wearing a hospital gown. Next to them were two other people Julie didn’t recognise, a tall black man and a handsome white man who had his arm around…

“Holy shit, is that Beverly Marsh?” Julie looked at the other two shocked. They looked back in confusion.

“Who?” Luke asked.

“Dude, Beverly Marsh as in _Rogan Marsh_? She’s like a huge fashion designer!” Julie exclaimed. “I didn’t know she was friends with Tozier!”

The caption on the picture read:

_First official meeting of the Loser’s Club in 27 years!_

“Loser’s Club?” Sofia asked, looking very amused. 

“I don’t get it either,” Luke said and then tapped the photo. “But look, he only tagged Richie and this Marsh person, not the others. The guy in the hospital gown has to be one of the friends that got hurt, right?”

“I don’t know, but I don’t think we should speculate either,” Sofia said. She still felt bad about how they had theorized so much when what had really happened was so bad.

“I don’t think the internet is going to get that memo,” Julie said squeezing her girlfriend’s hand lightly.

\----

She was right of course. The internet managed to quickly identify one of the men in the picture, the one with his arm around Beverly, as Ben Hanscom big shot architect. This caused an uproar which ended with Beverly announcing that she and her husband had split up weeks earlier and were getting a divorce. The press had a field day speculating about how she had gone into a new relationship so quickly even though neither Beverly nor Ben had said that they were dating.

The internet also became quickly obsessed with the idea of the ‘Loser’s Club’ prompting questions and questions about where and how these people knew each other.

“Oh shit, they found the other people,” Noah said as they all walked into their favourite coffee shop a little over a month after Richie Tozier had puked on stage. “One of them is a librarian, the other is an accountant and the third guy has some desk job in an insurance company or something. That last one is the guy in the hospital gown from the picture.”

“Do they know anything else?” Jake asked.

“I don’t know, but I’m looking.”

They all ordered their drinks and sat down as Noah kept scrolling through articles and tweets. “Okay, so apparently the insurance guy is the one that got in an accident. It says here that someone from his firm recognised him and told the press he was in an car accident a while back but I don’t think it’s the same thing. His wife also came forward and has been saying all kinds of stuff. Oh no, wait, they’re getting divorced.”

“Wow, that’s a lot of stuff for one person’s life,” Jake said. “Wait, so then the hospital gown guy isn’t the one that tried to kill himself?”

“Dude, have some sympathy,” Luke reprehended, hitting him on the head. “Maybe it’s a good thing that we don’t know. That’s a really sensitive topic.”

“Guys, this woman is batshit insane,” Noah said, still scrolling on her phone. “She’s eating up this media attention and going off on all of it. She’s been talking smack about Trashmouth too.”

“Wait, what?” Julie asked.

“Yeah, she’s been saying that her husband isn’t in his right mind and that his friends are exploiting him and that’s why they broke up,” Noah explained while he read things off the multiple articles he found. “She says they’re the reason he’s leaving her and why he had the accident. Apparently they were all together, like a reunion or something, and reconnected because of the guy who tried to hurt himself and when they were together this guy got hurt. She’s being really vocal and aggressive to all of them, especially the famous people like Denbrough and Marsh but it’s like dialed to eleven with Richie.”

“Sounds like she’s using all of this for attention,” Sofia said.

“Maybe she’s just trying to get her husband back,” Jake countered.

“Oh yeah? From who?” Julie ganged up on her brother, it was her favourite pastime. “From his mean famous friends? To me it sounds like reconnecting with his friends got him out of a shitty relationship. She sounds super possessive.”

“Did you guys know Richie Tozier was moving to New York?”

Jake did an almost movie perfect spit take. As Julie yelled at her brother for his bad manners and Luke cleaned the table mumbling about it being gross, Jake tried to compose himself and breathe.

“WHAT?” he asked, wheezing and coughing.

Noah clapped his back before answering. “Yeah, apparently he’s moving here. Or has moved here, I’m not sure. Not sure where either so if you’re gonna stalk him you’ll have to do your own research.”

“You know, for someone who is totally in love with the guy,” Luke spoke over Jake’s protests and the other’s laughter, “you don’t seem to actually know much about him at any given time.”

“I hate you,” was the only thing Jake said as the others laughed at his expense. 

\----

It had been three months since the disaster show when something happened that Julie really could not have predicted and would have called anyone crazy if they had suggested. 

Richie Tozier had been mostly silent in social media since his statement on what happened at his last show. He had posted his screenshots to Instagram and nothing else. On Twitter, he was barely active, mostly retweeting and liking things he found funny and making no further comments on show dates, new tours or any projects. In fact he had only tweeted twice during this time. Once he responded “I love you too Billiam” to Bill Denbrough’s tweet:

_I know you’ve been my best friend since we were 10 but @Trashmouth I SWEAR-_

And then later answered “Youre all just salty bc you suck at Monopoly” to Beverly Marsh’s tweet:

_@WilliamDenbrough petition to lock @Trashmouth in the garage until we finish the game?_

Of course the internet had exploded at this interaction and begged any of them to go live while they were together. The Loser’s Club had become the newest greatest celebrity friendships. Everyone thought it came out of nowhere and went crazy for any bit of information on the group of friends. The group had remained silent, though, not telling any stories or giving interviews or sharing more details about their friends' private lives. There hadn’t even been more information on Tozier’s supposed big move from LA to New York which they were all anxious to know about since, according to Jake, it would be awesome to see him “in the wild”.

Which is why it was such a shock when one Friday night Jake said to his sister:

“Hey, Jules, remember when you kept going on about how Trashmouth was kind of almost homophobic?”

“Yeah,” she answered wondering where this was going.

“Can’t say that anymore,” he said walking over to the couch where she and Luke were watching a movie, with a shocked expression.

She took his phone from him and read the tweet:

_Bi the way, let’s get one thing straight: I’m not._

Attached to this tweet was a Netflix comedy special poster called “Richie Tozier: Coming Out Live! from New York”.

“No fucking way,” Julie said, showing the tweet to Luke who just sat there gaping at the phone for a solid minute. “What the hell, no way!”

“Yes way,” Jake answered, still in complete shock. “We _have_ to go.”

“Abso-friken-lutely,” Luke answered, shaking himself out of his daze. Once he saw Julie’s expression he laughed and said “Oh, come on, Jules, there is no way we’re missing this. You’re the one who said he was inauthentic and whatnot, this could be amazing! When do they start selling tickets?”

“Next month,” Jake grabbed his computer and showed them the site that had been put up for the three comedy show dates that would be happening in four months’ time. “We’re gonna have to put a billion alarms and shit to buy them as soon as they are available, it’s probably gonna sell out really quick.”

\----

He couldn’t have been more right about that. One month later and their little group had all their laptops open and ready for when tickets became available. It was a good thing too because Sofia’s laptop crashed when she tried to open the site and Noah and Julie’s were slow to load. They ended up managing to buy their five tickets on Luke’s computer, all of them buzzing with excitement.

“I cannot believe I just paid to see him perform live,” Julie said to Sofia as soon as the confirmation arrived on Luke’s computer earning her an endearing smile and soft indulging kiss.

“Not just see him, but _see him_!” her brother cried for the millionth time. They had decided that since the dates were close to Julie and Jake’s birthday they would treat him and buy the backstage passes and the boy was vibrating out of his skin. “I’m gonna meet Trashmouth! GUYS WE’RE GOING TO MEET HIM!”

“Yes we are aware,” Luke laughed at his best friend’s excitement. “I just spent way too much money on it so happy birthday asshole, be happy.”

\----

The press tour that followed the sold out tickets was, to put it mildly, enlightening. Once it started, Jake would send them link after link on the group chat of interviews of the ‘new and improved’ Richie Tozier and Julie could not believe it was the same man. She almost thought he was putting on an act at first but then realised from everything he said and did that he had been doing that before.

_Jakeass 13:40_

Did you guys see the Fallon interview I sent????

_Juliebean 13:41_

I’m in class idiot

_Lukey 13:45_

Man, I can’t believe his manager said those things to him

Can you imagine someone telling you that you can’t come out for years and then making you perform shitty jokes you didn’t even write to keep up an appearance you hate? 

Just to appeal to dudebros???

And telling you people won’t understand your sexuality?????

Hollywood’s fucked up

_Jakeass 13:46_

RIGHT????

_Sunshine ❤️ 13:49_

I feel so bad for him, this is awful

I mean, he seems a lot better and he says his friends gave him the courage to turn all of this around, fire the shitty management team and all but holy shit you know?

_Boat Man 14:08_

I love how every interview people are like ‘so now that you’re out aRE yoU SEeiNg sOmeOnE?’

And he’s always like bitch I was repressed for thirty years what do you think

An Icon

_Juliebean 14:10_

Excuse you

A BICON

_Jakeass 14:12_

Back off second grade knockoff

_Juliebean 14:14_

I’m five minutes older than you

Also I thought you _weren’t_ obsessed with him?

_Lukey 14:15_

👀

_Jakeass 14:20_

You all suck

\----

The meet and greet was after the show which Julie imagined was probably for concentration purposes or maybe crowd control? Either way she had to admit that when they were escorted backstage towards the dressing rooms she was actually excited. She would never admit this, especially to her brother, but the show was hilarious. Sofia made fun of how much she had laughed and her refusal to admit that Tozier’s original material was actually really good.

The stagehand that was escorting them knocked on the door to the dressing room and peaked his head inside when someone yelled “come in!”

“I have some of the fans for the meet and greet?” he said and then waved them in when he got the okay from inside.

Inside, Richie Tozier was sitting on a couch, still wearing the suit he wore for the performance, hugging the brunette small man that had been in the photo wearing the hospital gown. They were so close that the brunette was almost sitting on his lap. Around them stood Beverly Marsh and Ben Hanscom leaning on the dressing table and sitting on an armchair was the curly haired accountant guy from the photo.

“Hey guys!” Richie greeted them. “Come on in, get comfy. I’d get up but there’s a compact bundle of cuteness demanding my presence.”

The brunette man rolled his eyes and elbowed him in the stomach lightly. “Be nice to the people that actually like you,” he said. “And don’t call me that.”

They shuffled in and the stagehand closed the door behind them.

“You’re right,” Richie said getting up and walking over to shake their hands. “Hi, I’m Richie and that compact bundle of _angry_ cuteness over there is the love of my life.”

“Eddie,” the man from the couch supplied rolling his eyes again.

For a second Richie paused and hesitated “Shit wait, should I have said that? Should I ask you not to say anything? Actually, no, I don’t care. Do I care? Eds, do I care? Do _you_ care?”

“Richie, I got a divorce to be with you,” Eddie answered, looking very amused. “I think that question has been answered. And don’t call me that.”

“Right, yes, you’re right,” Richie said, completely ignoring Eddie’s pointed request for the second time. Smiling again, he turned to the other people. “Anyway these are Bevvie, Haystack and Staniel. What are your names?”

Beverly, Ben and Stan only smiled and waved politely, knowing a lost battle when they saw one. The group hesitated for a second before Jake realised that Richie Tozier was talking to _him_ and went into full fanboy mode introducing them and ranting about how long he’d been watching Richie’s shows and how he had always wanted to see it live.

“Man, that’s so cool. Did you like it?” Richie asked. He looked really hesitant and scared. It suddenly occurred to Julie how terrifying this whole experience had to be. Not only did he come out but he created an entire comedy show around his coming out and multiple genuine stories about his childhood, his friends and his life in the closet. Adding to that, now he was meeting people who had just watched all of that and were in a perfect place to bring him down if they wanted to. 

“Hell yes!” her brother was saying. “This was your best show yet! Seriously, my favourite of all time it was hilarious, even my sister was laughing even though she’s the definition of no sense of humour and not really into your stuff.”

Julie stared daggers at her brother for that. “Not true,” she said through gritted teeth. “I like stand up.”

“Did you like my old stuff?” Richie asked smiling knowingly. Julie hesitated not knowing what to say before he continued. “Don’t worry, I hated it too.”

“Today was really cool though, it was super fun and… you’re really brave,” she told him, returning the smile. “I can’t imagine doing what you did.”

“Told ya,” Eddie piped up from the couch. He had an expression on his face of proud adoration. 

Richie waved him off in an odd display of shyness before he snapped out of it and said “So did Mrs. K back in the day but she had some ulterior motives to make me happy.” He wiggled his eyebrows at the man on the couch who’s expression turned sour before saying “beep beep” in an annoyed tone.

Stan groaned at Richie’s antics and said “You know, when you two finally got together I thought my life would have peace, and yet here we are.”

“Thirty years and the flirting is still at middle school level,” Beverly joined in.

“Really guys, it’s all about the pining,” Ben explained laughing at Richie’s offended expression.

“Excuse you, Haystack, you cannot lecture anyone on pining!” he said, lunging at his friend and messing up his hair.

“Wow thirty years, they got you beat sis,” Jake mocked her and she slapped his arm. 

“We didn’t pine,” she argued.

“You did,” Luke told her with a sorry not sorry expression.

“What’s this about pining?” Richie asked, smirking at them.

“Okay, fine there was pining,” she admitted. She took Sofia’s hand and kissed her knuckles. “But it was a very short three months before we got our shit together.”

“Speaking as someone who was there for those three months, it was not short,” Jake said playfully.

“You girls are together?” Richie asked, looking at their joint hands. “That’s… shit that’s awesome. I don’t think I’ve ever seen an openly gay couple at my shows.”

“Well, you got two for the price of one then,” Noah said, hugging Luke from behind and lightly kissing his neck. “Honestly, man, get used to it, you’re kind of an icon now. Welcome to the parade.”

“Hey!” Julie chastised laughing lightly. “Bicon!”

As they chuckled at this Richie looked for a second like he was going to say something or maybe even start crying before Eddie got up and came over to snuggle to his side. “See,” he whispered. “I told you. You’re an inspiration. My amazing funnyman.”

“Careful, Eds,” Richie sniffled lightly and hugged him close. “Someone might see this and accuse you of being a sappy romantic.”

Eddie looked scandalized for a second before going off on him. “I love you and I don’t give a shit what other people think, I’ll be romantic whenever the fuck I want. You’re the love of my life and you’re amazing and I’ll say it if I want to so fuck off and fuck you!” He got up on his tiptoes to kiss Richie’s cheek before gesturing to his three friends to follow. “You guys have fun, we’re gonna go wait with Bill and Mike at the bar.”

“Sure, Eds,” Richie said, smiling dopely as Eddie opened the door.

“Don’t call me that,” Eddie said in a reflective way that held no heat at all before exiting the room followed by his amused friends.

**Author's Note:**

> Please leave a comment and kudos if you liked this or just want to say hi really, it's still greatly appreciated!


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